Crane Electrocution Report Targets Management for Change

May 5, 2004 - A new study funded by The Center to Protect Workers' Rights, Silver Spring , Md. , looks at why electrocutions caused by crane contact with power lines continue to occur despite regulations designed to prevent such accidents. As many as 150 deaths and serious injuries occur each year.

The study included a review of government and other investigations of crane-related deaths since 1968. The report, "Safety Interventions to Control Hazards Related to Power Line Contacts by Mobile Cranes and other Boomed Equipment," makes recommendations which focus on making changes in management. Recommendations from the report include:

• Requiring training on the subject for utility executives, architects, and others;
  
  Requiring written safety plans by a project's architect, primary contractor, or construction manager;
• Establishing a danger zone of at least 15 feet (existing guidelines are for 10 feet) on each site of any power line pole, prohibited to entry by any part of a crane or boom;
• Requiring crane manufacturers and rental firms to provide range-limiting devices or proximity alarms on the equipment;
• Ensuring that aerial lifts are insulated against electrical conduction; and
• Designing boomed equipment so that controls are not operable from the ground.

The report was produced by David V. MacCollum, a safety engineer who has written extensively about crane safety. A copy of the report is available in print or on CD-ROM from the Hazard Information Foundation, Sierra Vista , Ariz. , at besafe@hazardinfo.com .